My church started a new series his week called "The Good Life" and it really hit home for me in so many ways. Ever since I was in high school I have been planning my life out. Everything from who I was going to marry, to what I would do with my life, to how many kids I would have, I have been planning since I was 16. 10 years later and I find myself still trying to plan out my life. When I was in high school I always thought...my life will be fulfilled once I find my future husband. Then I met Chris and we got married (and my life changed for the better) but my thoughts changed to....my life will be fulfilled once I have my dream job of being an actress. And now my thoughts are...my life will be fulfilled once I have a career I love and start having kids. But today it really hit me...I have been so busy planning out how to live my life and what to do in my life that I really havent lived in the "now" of my life. Having a husband, or career that I love or kids are not ever going to completely fufill my life. The only thing that can completely fill my life with joy and happiness is my relationship with God. That might sound cliche but it is completely true. When I was a kid I didnt think about the future, I took joy in the little things in life. As I got older and more "real life" responsibilities came my way, the little things didnt seem so important. I am realizing now just how important they are. Once I got into high school I was always being taught to prepare for your future, and I have always been afraid of making the wrong decisions that will effect my future. I have spent so much time being afraid to make wrong decisions, or beating myself up about bad decisions that most of the time I just waste time and lose out on every day opportunities. But that ends today. I am honestly exhausted with always trying to make the right decisions regarding the direction of my life. God knows that I am not perfect...and thats what is amazing about having a relationship with him...I dont HAVE to be perfect. Whenever I fail, He is there to pick me back up and put the pieces together. I'm not sure why this is hitting me so hard today...this is something I have always known...but it clicked in a very real way today. I feel a huge weight lifted off my chest and just feel so much more freedom to live my life. Living "the good life" just means living a life for God. Allowing Him to guide me and not wasting the life He gave me. Feeling how loved I am by Him, and spreading that love to everyone I meet. I have already been blessed with an amazing husband to share my life with and thats more than I can even ask for! I would still like to have a career that I love and have many kids...but I have come to realize that even if those things dont happen for me, I still have a fulfilled life because I have Jesus in it. He died so that I could live, and I will not take that for granted any longer.
This is going to be such a challenge for me to truly let go and just live. I am going to have to work on this daily, but I know in the long run my life will be way more enjoyable because of it. So right now I just want to say a few of the "little things" that I am thankful for in my day today.
-It was a beautiful day and I didnt have to work!
-free coffee at Crossroads (always makes my Sundays amazing)
-I finally got to spend Fathers Day with my dad...even though its a week late
-I got to spend the day with my nieces who I just adore to pieces
-My whole family just got to relax and spend time together with lots of laughs and absolutely no arguing (Thats a big deal...when you get a bunch of control freaks in one place!)
-I made my dad cry while reading his fathers day card (yes I know thats weird to be thankful for that but thats always my goal when I write cards!)
-I had an excuse to watch/listen to the Justin Bieber movie again b/c one of my nieces spent the night.
-I have the hottest guy in the world sitting next to me on the couch right now.
That being said, if anyone wants to hear the series that my church is doing on this subject feel free to check it out on their website at crossroads.net or even come check it out some weekend. Its pretty much the best place on this entire earth...filled with normal people...no one is gonna beat you with a bible or anything haha!
Thanks for checking out my blog!
Brittany :)
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Name Change
Am I really blogging two times in one week?? I am proud of myself I must say! So when I first started this blog a couple years ago I intended to talk about much deeper things. I felt I had so much to say on a "deeper" level. I think thats why I don't blog that much because I usually have a million things going through my mind, and I'm always searching for the meaning behind things that, sometimes I dont look at things on the surface level. I never really know how to put into words all things things going through my mind, so I usually just dont blog at all. However, I have found that I really enjoy blogging...even if no one reads it, I think its fun! I can say whatever is on my mind...whether it be silly or serious. Either way its a way to just clear my head a lot of times. Anyway, my point is I really want to get better at blogging...even if I dont feel like I have something significant to say. I'm most likely not going to post some life changing post and save the world at the same time (although I dream big so who knows...), but even if one person gets something out of what I say then it will be worth it. And I am totally ok if that one person getting something out of this blog is just me :)
Anyway on to the real reason I am posting! You may or may not have noticed that I changed the name of this blog to "Team Hoover." I felt like it was very fitting because ever since Chris and I got married this is what we have called ourselves. I have been known to yell out "TEAM HOOVER!" followed by a very lady like chest bump a time or two. Mine and Chris' relationship is a bit different than most relationships I know, for the simple fact that we work together. We are together from the moment we wake up, to the moment we go to bed at night (except for the nights that I stay up until 5am b/c I am a crazy and can never sleep!). Most of you know that Chris and I met while working together and except for maybe 1 year total out of the last 6 years we have been together, we have worked together. We toy with the idea of working separately every once and awhile, but honestly I cant imagine not having my hubby next to me at work. The days I go into work and hes not there, or when he goes into work and I have the night off, I seriously miss him so much. (Side note: I'm not some clingy weirdo or anything, I actually REALLY love my space and "me" time haha.) However I have come to realize that Chris and I have truly become "one" in these past few years. We are 50/50 with everything. We both clean, we both cook, we both handle our finances, we both work hard, etc. Of course there are days where I do more than Chris, and days where he does more than me (and in all honestly there are probably more of those days because he is just amazing like that.) When I take a hard look at our relationship it really resembles a "team". Now of course we have our days where we argue or get on each others nerves (and those married people who say they dont are LYING haha), but they dont last long and we just try to move on from those days. We try to be there for each other no matter what, we always have each other backs and would do anything for each other. We are best friends and soul mates for sure. The more I am married, the more I realize just how blessed I am to always have Chris by my side on this journey of life. I am proud to be Mrs. Hoover and 1/2 of Team Hoover! (I'm so cheesy I just cant help myself...)
Also in case anyone read this and thought "wow Brittany thinks her marriage is perfect and her life is perfect and blah blah blah". My answer to you is no one is perfect...and I definitely dont think my life is perfect nor is my marriage. Luckily for me I am not striving to be perfect! Anyway thats a blog topic for another time ;)
Anyway on to the real reason I am posting! You may or may not have noticed that I changed the name of this blog to "Team Hoover." I felt like it was very fitting because ever since Chris and I got married this is what we have called ourselves. I have been known to yell out "TEAM HOOVER!" followed by a very lady like chest bump a time or two. Mine and Chris' relationship is a bit different than most relationships I know, for the simple fact that we work together. We are together from the moment we wake up, to the moment we go to bed at night (except for the nights that I stay up until 5am b/c I am a crazy and can never sleep!). Most of you know that Chris and I met while working together and except for maybe 1 year total out of the last 6 years we have been together, we have worked together. We toy with the idea of working separately every once and awhile, but honestly I cant imagine not having my hubby next to me at work. The days I go into work and hes not there, or when he goes into work and I have the night off, I seriously miss him so much. (Side note: I'm not some clingy weirdo or anything, I actually REALLY love my space and "me" time haha.) However I have come to realize that Chris and I have truly become "one" in these past few years. We are 50/50 with everything. We both clean, we both cook, we both handle our finances, we both work hard, etc. Of course there are days where I do more than Chris, and days where he does more than me (and in all honestly there are probably more of those days because he is just amazing like that.) When I take a hard look at our relationship it really resembles a "team". Now of course we have our days where we argue or get on each others nerves (and those married people who say they dont are LYING haha), but they dont last long and we just try to move on from those days. We try to be there for each other no matter what, we always have each other backs and would do anything for each other. We are best friends and soul mates for sure. The more I am married, the more I realize just how blessed I am to always have Chris by my side on this journey of life. I am proud to be Mrs. Hoover and 1/2 of Team Hoover! (I'm so cheesy I just cant help myself...)
Also in case anyone read this and thought "wow Brittany thinks her marriage is perfect and her life is perfect and blah blah blah". My answer to you is no one is perfect...and I definitely dont think my life is perfect nor is my marriage. Luckily for me I am not striving to be perfect! Anyway thats a blog topic for another time ;)
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
3 year Anniversary
So this August will be mine and Chris' 3 year wedding anniversary. I can't believe time has gone by so fast! We have gone through so much together in the past 6 years (both good and bad) and I have never felt closer to him than I do now. We were talking a few days ago about when we first met and it gave me butterflies all over again. He truly was made for me and I can not express enough how blessed I feel to have him as my husband. One thing that Chris and I have been able to do a lot these past 6 years is travel. We've been on 3 cruises, Florida, Hilton Head, Gatlinburg, Vegas, New Orleans, etc. We drove the long drive to California and back. We have lived in 3 different states in 3 years. It really seems we cant stay still for too long! We have been extremely blessed to do all of these things and have made so many memories with each other along the way. We were talking a few weeks ago about making a trip somewhere for our Anniversary and couldn't quite pick a specific place that we wanted to go to. That's when we (I) came up with the brilliant idea that for each vacation we take we will go someplace new. So that became part of our bucket list....Explore at least one city in every state. You have no idea how excited I am about this. There are sooo many places I want to visit! And I am even more excited to do this with my best friend/love of my life at my side! So far we only have 12 of the 50 states covered, but on our anniversary trip we will be visiting 4 different states in a week! Ever since we planned this trip I cant stop talking about it so I'll share with you some of the exciting things we will be doing!
First stop: PITTSBURGH, PA
This is a view from the hotel we will be staying at. Most of you probably wouldn't be excited to visit Pittsburgh. ESPECIALLY you Bengals fans! However, considering I have been a Steelers fan for 16 years and have never been to Pittsburgh I am extremely excited (and also ashamed to admit I have never been there)! I have even talked Chris into going on a Heinz Field tour with me!!! For those of you that know Chris, you know what a huge sacrifice this is considering how much he hates the Steelers haha. Another exciting thing we will be doing in Pittsburgh is eating at Primanti Brothers. This was featured on Man vs. Food and I can not wait to get a hold of one of these sandwhiches.
I mean seriously why have I never thought to put french fries on my sandwhich before?! mmmmm!
Next up will be the fabulous NEW YORK CITY:
Now I have actually visited NYC before, but Chris has not so we are going to explore the city together. We will actually be going to a YANKEES/RED SOX GAME! This will be perfect since we both hate the Yankees and like the Red Sox. Lets just hope we don't get beat up by any New York fans ;) We will be doing the normal tourist stuff while in New York and I am most looking forward to showing Chris Ground Zero. It is just a really humbling experience to go there and remember all the lives lost on that horrible day. Here is a picture from when I visited Ground Zero back in 2005:
(Side note: this picture was taken a week before I met Chris for the first time...so I am excited to go back WITH him.) Among a million other things we are trying to squeeze into our two days in New York, we will be going to a restaurant called NINJA. We saw it on the Travel Channel and it looks very interesting...apparently you are greeted at the door by Ninjas with swords haha. It should be a different experience for sure!
After NYC we will be driving to ATLANTIC CITY, NJ:
We are staying at a hotel called The Chelsea which looks REALLY nice, with a rooftop pool and right on the beach. I can't wait! While there we will also be visiting the Absecon Lighthouse and having our official Anniversary dinner at Ruths Chris Steakhouse (which I will be happy to not be a vegetarian at that dinner!)
From Atlantic City we will drive to Philadelphia, PA:
This pic is of a cute little bed and breakfast we will be staying at. We stayed at a bed and breakfast for the first time on our 2 year anniversary and loved the experience. This particular bed and breakfast was rated #1 in Philadelphia so it should be a great time! The most important part of our entire trip will happen while we are in Philadelphia and it is what we planned our entire trip around...the REDS/PHILLIES GAME. Chris and I are both die hard Reds fans...and we both HATE the Phillies. I am still extremely bitter about them beating us in the post season last year, so we will be sitting right by the Reds dugout and cheering our hearts out for our team!
Our last stop on our trip will be WASHINGTON D.C:
Neither Chris or I have ever been there and with so many historical sites to see, I'm sure it will be a busy and fun filled day!
Not only am I excited to see all of these places, but a road trip with my hubby will be the best part of it all. If you have been to any of these places and have suggestions of things we should do/see/eat let me know!!
~Brittany
First stop: PITTSBURGH, PA
Next up will be the fabulous NEW YORK CITY:
After NYC we will be driving to ATLANTIC CITY, NJ:
From Atlantic City we will drive to Philadelphia, PA:
This pic is of a cute little bed and breakfast we will be staying at. We stayed at a bed and breakfast for the first time on our 2 year anniversary and loved the experience. This particular bed and breakfast was rated #1 in Philadelphia so it should be a great time! The most important part of our entire trip will happen while we are in Philadelphia and it is what we planned our entire trip around...the REDS/PHILLIES GAME. Chris and I are both die hard Reds fans...and we both HATE the Phillies. I am still extremely bitter about them beating us in the post season last year, so we will be sitting right by the Reds dugout and cheering our hearts out for our team!
Our last stop on our trip will be WASHINGTON D.C:
Not only am I excited to see all of these places, but a road trip with my hubby will be the best part of it all. If you have been to any of these places and have suggestions of things we should do/see/eat let me know!!
~Brittany
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